Read the transcript to the Tuesday show

LAWRENCE O`DONNELL, HOST: If you have a job, you probably missed the presidential press conference. But don`t worry. You didn`t miss anything, because as usual, it was more about the press than the president.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Obama marks a major second term milestone today.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does he have leverage left? You could see his exasperation today.

WAGNER: The sequester is stupid in name and practice.

OBAMA: Whether we can get it done or not, we`ll see.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O`DONNELL: A hundred years ago, Woodrow Wilson held the first presidential press conference. Fifty-eight years ago, Dwight Eisenhower held the first televised presidential press conference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DWIGHT EISENHOWER, FORMER PRESIDENT: I think we`re trying a new experiment this morning. I hope it doesn`t prove to be a disturbing influence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: It turns out television has proven to be a disturbing influence, just as Dwight Eisenhower feared -- but not on the president, on the press. These rituals are called press conferences because they`re not really about the president, they are about the press.

The president`s job is to tell us nothing new, nothing we didn`t already know, while appearing open and honest in response to the questions, which is actually quite easy because presidents are never asked truly difficult questions at presidential press conferences. They are asked about their feelings. They are asked about unprovable things like what Congress might do a few months from now.

They`re never asked the details of any of the intricacies of the tax code they claim to dislike. They never asked difficult questions about Medicare part A or Medicare part B or part D, each of which is a government enterprise of life or death importance and stunning complexity.

They are not asked detailed questions about the government`s biggest program, Social Security. Social Security is the largest item in the federal budget. Virtually every American participates in it. It has an almost infinite number of moving parts, but no president is ever asked about more than one of those parts at a time, say the retirement age or maybe cost of living increases, and it`s only the politics of what you might do with those things.

The White House press corps doesn`t ask detailed questions about governing and never has because they don`t know the details of governing. That is not their job. Their job is to know a little about everything that the White House has been publicly working on lately, and that`s a lot of stuff. That is a lot to keep up with.

If you want the president to get detailed questions about Medicare, no White House correspondent can ever ask those questions. We`d have to bring in from the bullpen the "The New York Times" Medicare expert Robert Pear. For that it would take Robert Pear to ask questions about Medicare, and if Robert Pear was allowed to ask the president questions about that, it wouldn`t take him very many questions to find the limits of any president`s knowledge of Medicare, or Medicaid, or Social Security.

But facts, new information, real information, how the government really works, that`s not what presidential press conferences are about. They`re about the press getting presidential quotes about something, anything, to fill up the paragraphs in their newspapers. And most of all, they`re about reporters, usually television reporters, trying to ask the question with the catchy sound byte we all want to use on our news shows. You see them doing it every time.

Today, it was ABC`s Jonathan Karl`s turn. He asked a question that elicited an answer that contained nothing we didn`t already know, but Jonathan Karl didn`t really care about the answer. His investment was entirely in his question. It was entirely in the self-centered dream of watching his question played on his network and on all cable news shows. He actually asked the president of the United States a question about juice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Jonathan Karl.

JONATHAN KARL, ABC NEWS: Mr. President, you are 100 days into your second term. On the gun bill, you put seems everything into it to try to get it passed, obviously it didn`t. Congress ignored your efforts to try to get them to undue the sequester cuts. There was even a bill you threatened to veto that got 92 Democrats in the House voting yes.

So, my question to you is: do you still have the juice to get the rest of your agenda through this Congress?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: Oh, the juice. You could tell the president thought it was a ridiculous question like most of the questions he gets. So he played with it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: If you put it that way, Jonathan, maybe I should just pack up and go home. Golly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: And the president`s little joke line actually provoked very serious graphics on CNN today, streaming across the screen, the president says maybe I should just pack up and go home.

CNN thought that that was news. The joke line was news. CNN thought we`d learn something important when the president said that joke.

Back in President Kennedy`s day when televised press conferences were still a novelty and reporters were not fully committed to doing their own star turns before the camera, everyone knew when a joke was a joke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: I wonder if you could tell us whether if you had it to do over again, you would work for the presidency, whether you can recommend the job to others.

JOHN KENNEDY, FORMER PRESIDNT: Well, the answer to the first is yes, and the second is no, I don`t recommend it to others, least for awhile.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: Now, if CNN had been around in those days, they would have put up a banner all afternoon saying JFK doesn`t recommend presidency to others.

ABC has a rich tradition of White House correspondents who believe their questions are more important than the president`s answer.

Here was how the ABC White House correspondent made it all about him last year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Go ahead -- Jake.

JAKE TAPPER, ABC NEWS REPORTER: It seems to a lot of observers that you made the political calculation in 2008 in your first term and 2012 not t talk about gun violence. You had your position on renewing the ban on semi-automatic rifles that then-Senator Joe Biden put into place, but you didn`t do much about it. This is not the first issue, first incident of horrific gun violence of your four years. Where have you been?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: Now, there`s a substantive question for you, for the president of the United States. Where have you been? And, of course, it produced an answer that told no one other than possibly the reporter who just asked that question something we didn`t know.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Well, here`s where I`ve been, Jake. I`ve been president of the United States, dealing with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, an auto industry on the verge of collapse, two wars. I don`t think I`ve been on vacation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: When the foreign press gets a shot at the president of the United States, they can be much rougher than the White House press corps, but they don`t really care much about how much camera time they get.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(INAUDIBLE)

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT: Everybody calm down. First of all, thank you for apologizing on behalf of the Iraqi people. It doesn`t bother me. If he wants it back, it is a size 10 shoe that he threw.

Thank you for your concerns. Do not worry about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: And there you have President George W. Bush`s finest moment in all of his presidential press conferences. It takes a lot for a president to steal the spotlight away from the more than a few White House reporters who want to hog the camera for themselves.

But Richard Nixon managed to do it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD NIXON, FORMER PRESIDENT: I want to say this to the television audience. I made my mistakes, but in all my years of public life, I have never profited, never profited from public service. I earned every cent. And in all my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice, and I think, too, that I can say in my years of public life that I welcome this kind of examination because people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I am not a crook.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: That was the most memorable moment from all of President Nixon`s press conferences.

But it wasn`t exactly, how should I put it, true. He did try to obstruct justice and he was enough of a crook to be forced to resign the presidency.

Joy Reid, Ari Melber, OK, I don`t think everyone of them, OK, I don`t mean every person sitting the chair in the White House press briefing room is an egomaniac. But, man, the camera finds more than a couple of them every time, don`t they?

JOY REID, THE GRIO: Yes, they do. I mean, I think it`s important that you showed some of that history, Lawrence, because the reality is, look, presidential press conferences used to be really important to print reporters back in the days when the average beat reporter didn`t have access to the White House and didn`t really have access to daily, day to day movements of the president.

And when the American public wasn`t accustomed to seeing the president in candid moments, that was Nixon unscripted. These were not the news reels that we were accustomed to seeing on the very staged sort of access to the president that the ordinary person had. The press conference was a chance to see the real them.

But, now, we do live in an age where you and I are on the list, Ari is on the list, we get these dispatches from the White House every day. We all know what the White House thinks about issues. We know what they`re doing. Those reporters already know.

O`DONNELL: I don`t get them.

REID: We can get you on the list.

O`DONNELL: I`m happy to be on that list.

ARI MELBER, MSNBC`S "THE CYCLE": We can make a phone call.

O`DONNELL: I would never get around --

REID: They already know what his policies are, so what is the job of the guys in that press corps, ones that have access. Their job is to draw him into the news cycle or into whatever the meme is to the day, which is why you get the most interesting questions from those reporters in the back of the room that don`t get asked as much.

O`DONNELL: Ari, was there anything in today`s press conference where you thought OK, I didn`t know that?

MELBER: There was one good question out of the 12. There were two questions on Benghazi for those keeping count.

But the one good question I thought was from Bill Plante at CBS, he raised the hunger strikers at Guantanamo, which is an issue today. It doesn`t get a lot of attention in Washington. IO wish the president hasn`t been pressed on, although he had a good answer, partly Congress has really tried to defund the very operations that would make these kinds of strikes and these problems at Gitmo less likely.

The other point, you made I thought is really important, Lawrence, which is, if you`re asking good questions, we would hear the answers and not thinking about the questions. Every lawyer knows when you depose someone or interrogate someone, it is the answers.

O`DONNELL: We didn`t hear anything from the president that we didn`t already know when it was his turn to answer the question.

MELBER: He didn`t reveal new information, I`ll give you that, but I don`t think he was asked a lot about the hunger strike. In that sense he chose not to say more.

But I think a good question would give us an answer that`s revealing, interesting, important, and not make us all remember the silliness of the question. And that shows why I think, again, a lot of the people in this position sometimes lose sight of that.

The other thing though that goes to the White House is, they like calling on TV reporters. They didn`t call on any serious print reporters in today`s press conference, those folks are there. And for people at home who don`t realize, there`s an assigned seating grid which the White House Correspondents` Association works on. TVs in front, look, I have a background in print, now at MSNBC, I love being at MSNBC.

But I do think at the basic level of diversity, you want to call on some print reporters, too.

O`DONNELL: All right. I`m going to show a clip of a question I liked at today`s press conference. I`m going to be accused of being a home team guy. So let`s just roll it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: Mr. President, thank you. Max Baucus, Democratic Senator, referred to the implementation as your health care law as a potential train wreck. And other Democrats have been whispering nervousness about the implementation and the impact -- and it`s all self-centered a little bit -- the impact that it might have on their own political campaigns in 2014. Why do you think -- just curious -- why does Senator Baucus, somebody who ostensibly helped write your bill, believe that this is going to be a train wreck? And why do you believe he`s wrong?

OBAMA: Well, you know, I think any time you`re implementing something big, there`s going to be people who are nervous and anxious about, is it going to get done until it is actually done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: Then he goes on and makes a speech about the health care bill. But what I like was, Chuck tried to get him into serious area, implementation of health care reform bill. There are going to be a lot of problems with it. It`s a big, messy contraction of legislation. But he couldn`t get into it, because the president`s job is I`m not -- Chuck, I am not here to tell you that we are having big problems with implementing this, even if we are.

So, but I think the elements Chuck brought in, quoting a senator, that`s real, train wreck, ewe get the imagery. I kind of like that.

REID: I was surprised the president didn`t jump on the fact that Max Baucus, who was sitting as the head of the Senate Finance Committee, wrote the freaking bill. If it`s a train wreck, he had the conductor hat on, right? So, I thought, I was surprised the president didn`t go at Baucus. He was also leaving the Senate.

O`DONNELL: Senators have written plenty of bills that they think are messes that they have gotten passed.

REID: You know, I agree with you, there wasn`t anything new. There wasn`t anything that I didn`t already know. But I kind of agree with Ari, that the most interesting part of the press conference to me was the Gitmo piece, because he hadn`t heard about it, because the press hasn`t covered the uprising that much. I hadn`t heard that much about in the media. I thought it was interesting the president answered it.

But I do think like the juice question, it ignored the big elephant in the room which is called Congress. Juice is 68 senators, like Lyndon Johnson had. Juice means being able to compel the opposition to at least listen to your ideas.

So, the president doesn`t lack juice because he isn`t feeding Congress enough dinner, it is because there aren`t 60 plus Democrats in the Senate.

O`DONNELL: Yes. I mean, they had wild majorities back then.

So, we can reassure people who are driving to work on the West Coast while this was going on, and everyone on the East Coast at work, they missed absolutely nothing.

MELBER: They missed very little.

O`DONNELL: OK, good. They can go to sleep now.

Joy Reid, and Ari Melber, thank you both very much for joining me tonight.

And breaking news out of Massachusetts where we now know who will run against Ed Markey to replace John Kerry in the Senate, because I told you long time ago Ed Markey was going to win the Democratic nomination tonight.

And in the rewrite, Rand Paul rewrites Rand Paul. And then, Rand Paul rewrites Ron Paul. The lies the Paul family have been telling since the Boston marathon bombings are in tonight`s "Rewrite."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

O`DONNELL: The specific cause of the explosion at the fertilizer plant in West, Texas, isn`t yet known, but Senator Barbara Boxer is planning to hold hearings to find out why a plant that contained so many explosive chemicals was inspected only one time in its 51-year-old history by OSHA and was last inspected by the EPA in 1996. Also, was the fertilizer plant storing ammonium nitrate without telling the Department of Homeland Security, the same explosive used in the Oklahoma City bombing?

Up next, the parents of Matthew Shepard will join me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Thank you guys.

REPORTER: Jason Collins?

OBAMA: Yes.

I`ll say something about Jason Collins. I had a chance to talk to him yesterday. He seems like a terrific young man, and I told him I couldn`t be prouder of him. One of the extraordinary measures of progress that we`ve seen in this country has been the recognition that the LGBT community deserves full equality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: That was President Obama today on Jason Collins who made history when he wrote this in "Sports Illustrated." I`m a 34-year-old NBA center, I`m black and I`m gay."

Jason Collins is the first openly gay athlete on a major professional sports team in this country`s 142 years of professional team sports. Today, he discussed his phone call with the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON COLLINS, NBA PLAYER: He was incredibly supportive and he was proud of me and said that this not only affected my life but others going forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: Last season, Jason Collins wore jersey number 98. Collins writes in "Sports Illustrated", "The number has great significance to the gay community, one of the most notorious gay he crimes occurred in 1998, Matthew Shepard, a University of Wyoming student who was kidnapped, tortured, lashed to a prairie fence. He died five days after he was finally found. "

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Each time I put on jersey 98 this past season, I was already sort of having that moment with myself, with my family, with my friends who knew the significance of why I picked that number.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jersey 98 for Matthew Shepard.

COLLINS: Jersey 98 for Matthew Shepard. That`s why I wore jersey 98.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: Joining me now, Matthew Shepard`s parents, Jodi and Dennis. They have founded the Matthew Shepard Foundation to replace hate with understanding, compassion and acceptance.

Thanks for joining me tonight.

JUDY SHEPARD, MOTHER OF SLAIN LGBT STUDENT: Thank you.

O`DONNELL: Judy, what did it feel like for you to hear Matthew Shepard -- to hear Jason Collins talking about your son like that?

J. SHEPARD: It made me cry to know that Matt`s story has impact on young people. We know it did. But for Jason to acknowledge Matt`s story, to come out at all at this time, in his career and his life, is really pretty amazing.

O`DONNELL: Dennis, what does it mean for people like Jason Collins, and his unique position in our culture, unique in the sense no one else in that position has come out? What do you think it means in this country, this kind of moment.

DENNIS SHEPARD, FATHER OF SLAIN LGBT STUDENT: He gives a lot of hope to young athletes all over the country, if they`re gay. In the past, they`ve had to hide who they are and who they love. This gives them a chance to be themselves and focus on what they should be focusing on which is the sport that they`re participating in and not focusing half their energy on trying to hide who they are.

O`DONNELL: Judy, the president talked about you in his speech to Human Rights Campaign in one of the speeches. I would like to listen to that now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I met her in the Oval Office and I promised her that we were going to pass an inclusive hate crimes bill. A bill named for her son. And I can announce that after more than a decade, this bills set to pass and I will sign it into law.

(APPLAUSE)

And it is a testament to Matthew and others who have been victims of attacks not just meant to break bones but to break spirits, not just to inflict harm but to instill fear. Together, we will move closer to that moment where no one has to be afraid to be gay in America.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: Judy, there have been many examples of how the tragedy that your son suffered have actually helped galvanize efforts in people moving forward on this issue. Was that the sense you got when you spoke to the president in the oval office?

J. SHEPARD: I really did. I felt like he understood what we were going through and what we are trying to achieve, unlike previous administrations. So, I really was hopeful things will change and where they really have changed. It`s really been amazing.

O`DONNELL: And, Dennis, this was something you started this foundation literally weeks after your son was killed. It`s now become a life`s work to you. What do you feel is the pace of progress now?

D. SHEPARD: It`s like running downhill, speeding up faster and faster. To begin with, it was so slow and so difficult.

Judy especially, she was doing all of the traveling, I was overseas. But she was fighting and fighting to be heard. And she was speaking to the choir. But people are starting to realize that you either are related to somebody or you know somebody who`s gay and you`re finding out they`re common, ordinary citizens like you who are trying to struggle to keep a job, to pay a mortgage, et cetera.

And because of that and with support of the president and vice president being for gay marriage, it`s a downhill slide now with picking up speed by everybody.

J. SHEPHARD: Yes.

O`DONNELL: Judy and Dennis Shepard, I am very sorry for your tragic loss. And thank you very, very much for joining us tonight.

D. SHEPARD: Thank you very much.

J. SHEPARD: Thank you very much. Thank you.

O`DONNELL: What happened when the child of a Newtown shooting victim confronted Senator Kelly Ayotte for voting against gun safety legislation? That woman will join me for a LAST WORD exclusive.

And in Massachusetts, the primary is over and the race is set for who will replace John Kerry in the Senate. That`s next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O`DONNELL: You heard it here first. Tonight, Congressman Ed Markey won the Democratic primary for Senate in Massachusetts. And you actually heard it here first last year, the day Ed Markey announced his candidacy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: I am hereby declaring Ed Markey the winner to be in the Senate race.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: Congressman Markey now faces Republican Gabriel Gomez in the special general election on June 25th, which Markey will, of course, easily win, just as he won the primary tonight.

And I am sweating out a nail biter in the Senate district -- the state Senate district in Dorchester, where I grew up in Boston. Linda Dorsena Forry (ph) was declared -- officially declared by the "Boston Globe" within the hour. They have pulled that projection. She`s running against Nick Collins, a guy from South Boston. So it`s Dorchester versus Southie. Linda Dorsena Forry is now ahead of Nick Collins.

And if I haven`t gone too local for you, then sorry, but this will be the first woman elected to this seat, the first person of color elected to this seat. And when I was living there, that Senate seat was occupied by Senator Billy Bulger, whose brother was the murderous gangster -- is the murderous gangster, Whitey Bulger. All politics is local.

Joining me now, Ana Marie Cox, correspondent for "The Guardian." Ana Marie, I wanted to get the local Dorchester stuff out of the way, because you probably don`t have the latest numbers on that. And I figured I`d just handle it --

ANA MARIE COX, "THE GUARDIAN": I can`t even pronounce it correctly.

O`DONNELL: Yes. So I just thought I`d handle that. I am telling you, this is an incredible night in Dorchester.

COX: OK.

O`DONNELL: So big surprise, Ed Markey won.

COX: Yes. Everyone is shocked. The sun will also rise in the east tomorrow, I understand. There`s lots of people in Massachusetts waiting for that to happen. I have to say, you`re right, this is probably going to be a walk for Markey. But I am very entertained by his opponent, who has a great story. He was a Navy SEAL. You know, he is a Latino. He is actually sort of in the Rubio camp for immigration reform, all of this wonderful stuff. Also apparently kind of a Democrat. So, you know, it will be an interesting race to the center, I guess -- to the left, I should say.

He actually wrote a letter -- go ahead.

O`DONNELL: Didn`t Gabriel Gomez support President Obama at some point?

COX: He did. He did. In 2008, he actually donated to Obama`s campaign. Actually my favorite tid bit about him is that he was involved with this Navy SEAL PAC, OPSec Education Fund. They were accused of being a Republican front. When they had to say, oh now, we`re not a Republican front, they pointed at him as being part of their bipartisan membership. So, you know, I mean, I guess it is nice to see the Republicans moving to the left. But he`s -- in Massachusetts, that`s understandable.

But he doesn`t really present a strong case in his campaign. So this is not going to be that exciting. But again, it might be entertaining.

O`DONNELL: Yes, he is a guy with a great life story. This thing about he supported Obama, this is classic Massachusetts Republican stuff. You`ll remember that Mitt Romney did everything he could --

COX: Wait, who?

O`DONNELL: -- in Massachusetts to swear that he was not a Reaganite, not that kind of Republican.

COX: What is it in the water there? Is it something only in Republican water that has them flip flopping.

O`DONNELL: You do what you`ve got to do to get elected in a Democratic state.

COX: Right. Right. Or not get elected, as the case maybe.

O`DONNELL: As the case is going to be in that instance. But he is an interesting guy. Meanwhile, America, during the upcoming commercial break, I will be studying the local state Senate race in Dorchester. I will have the latest before we close it out tonight.

Ana Marie Cox, thank you very much for joining me tonight.

COX: Thank you.

O`DONNELL: Coming up, the daughter of a Newtown shooting victim confronts one of the senators who voted against massacre control legislation. That young woman will join me for a LAST WORD exclusive.

And in the Rewrite, the aftermath of the Boston marathon bombing has pushed Rand Paul and Ron Paul to new lows in the way they very casually lie to their followers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O`DONNELL: The director of national intelligence wants to know if the FBI and CIA could have or should have done more with the intelligence that they had about the suspected Boston bombers and their family. Director James Clapper announced an independent review of information sharing procedures and the handling of information related to the suspects prior to the attack. The inspectors general of the FBI, Homeland Security and intelligence agencies will carry out the review.

President Obama said today that, based on what he had seen, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security had done what they were -- quote, "were supposed to be doing," end quote.

In the spring of 2011, Russia`s spy agency asked the FBI to investigate Tamerlan Tsarnaev for possible involvement with Islamic militants. They concluded that there was then no evidence that he or his family were involved in terrorism.

Coming up next, Rand Paul lies about Rand Paul and Ron Paul lies about the Boston police. Ron Paul lies about the people of Boston. He lies about the people of Cambridge. He lies about the people of Watertown. Ron Paul lies about all of that in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings. That`s next in the rewrite.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: I`ve never argued against any technology being used when you have an imminent threat, an active crime going on. If someone comes out of a liquor store with a weapon and 50 dollars in cash, I don`t care if a drone kills him or policeman kills him.

RA. PAUL: No American should be killed by a drone on American soil without first being charged with a crime, without first being found to be guilty by a court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: So Rand Paul didn`t just Rewrite himself on drones. He lied about what he had previously said about drones. He was attacked online by some libertarians who realized that he wasn`t just lying about his previous statements, he was violating libertarian principles. "I disagree with shooting first and asking questions later," wrote one broken hearted libertarian. "I am stunned by Rand`s statement," wrote another.

But they shouldn`t have been stunned, because, as I have pointed out in this space before, inconsistency and lying are Rand Paul trademarks, as is forcing his Senate staff to lie for him. His press secretary put out a statement retracting the senator`s statement about killing liquor store robbery suspects with drones. The retraction said "armed drones should not be used in normal crime situations."

When asked if the senator was retracting his shoot to kill fleeing liquor store robbery suspects with drones nonsense, the press secretary was forced to lie. Quote, "not retracting," end quote, is what she said.

Yesterday, Rand`s father, Ron Paul, finally gave the world his long awaited take on law enforcement reaction to the bombing, in an op-ed for a libertarian website entitled "Liberty Was Also Attacked in Boston." Ron is a much more consistent libertarian than Rand, who is surely the slowest student of libertarianism in the Paul family. But Ron lies just as much as his son, and just as blatantly, and always has.

The first word of Ron`s op-ed piece is a lie -- the first word! The first sentence is a lie. The first paragraph is a lie. Let`s count the lies in Ron`s first paragraph. Forced -- "forced lock down of a city" -- Now let`s listen to the governor announcing the forced lock down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. DEVAL PATRICK (D), MASSACHUSETTS: We`re asking people to shelter in place, in other words, to stay indoors, with their doors locked and not to open the door for anyone other than a properly identified law enforcement officer. And that applies here in Watertown, where we are right now, also Cambridge, Waltham, Newton, Belmont, and at this point, all of Boston -- all of Boston.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: Did you get that? Forced? He said, we`re asking people to shelter in place. That`s what the governor said. He did not order anyone to do anything.

Now let`s listen to the guy who stepped up to the microphone right after the governor, the Boston Police Commissioner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED DAVIS, BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: Mayor Menino has asked me to come here and to tell you that the shelter in place recommend has been extended through the city of Boston.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: "The shelter in place recommendation." So forced is lie number one. Let`s look at lie number two. Tanks. OK? There re no tanks in Boston. The Boston Police don`t have tanks. This is a tank. And this is the most fearsome vehicle that the Boston police used in the manhunt. It is about as scary as the armored trucks that move cash to and from your neighborhood bank.

It is not a tank. Look at those tires on the police vehicle. Now look at the tires on a tank. See? No tires on a tank. Ron Paul knows the difference. He served honorably in our military. He knows the difference between a tank and an armored car. But for rhetorical effect, he prefers the lie to the truth on that one.

"Door to door armed searches without warrant." Police don`t need warrants if property owners welcome them into their homes. "Families thrown out of their homes at gunpoint to be searched without probable cause." No guns were pointed at any families. Some families vacated their homes in Cambridge as police searched homes in that area, in the area of the suspect`s home.

I was on the street in Cambridge then talking to the residents who were very glad to be out of their homes for the few hours it took the police to be sure that there were no bombs in that area, near the suspect`s home, in or near the suspect`s home. The street that the police were searching then was actually full of spectators and reporters watching the bomb search from what we hoped was a safe distance.

None of the spectators on the street were following the recommendation to shelter in place. And no police officer told them to go home because no police officer had the authority to tell anyone to go home, because there was no forced lock down. No businesses were forced to close. That`s another Ron Paul lie. No businesses were forced to close. A wonderful little cafe was doing a busy lunch business on the corner of the street being searched for bombs in Cambridge.

"Transport shut down." Well, taxis were running most of the day. And you could always drive a car anywhere you wanted. But subways and buses were shut down. So I will give Ron Paul that one.

So the first paragraph has six sentences and five lies. Ron Paul repeats variations on those lies throughout the piece, the shelter in place command -- those are his words. That`s what he calls it. There was no command. "The paramilitary troops terrorizing the public," those are the words he used, "terrorizing the public." Here is how the public reacted to being terrorized by their local police.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: "Paramilitary police riding in tanks and pointing automatic weapons at innocent citizens," that`s what Ron Paul wrote. What a vile lie. There were no tanks and there were no police pointing their weapons at innocent citizens. And you know who knows what a despicable lie that is? You know who knows how many police hating lies Ron Paul told in his op-ed piece? Rand Paul.

Rand Paul knows. When he was issuing his non-retraction retraction about supporting drone use in liquor store robberies, Rand Paul said this: "fighting terrorism and capturing terrorists must be done while preserving our Constitutional protections. This was demonstrated last week in Boston."

I`m sorry, libertarians -- honest libertarians, you deserve better spokesmen than Ron and Rand. But until you get better libertarian advocates, you`re going to have to continue to endure paranoid lying politicians in the Paul family.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERICA LAFFERTY, DAUGHTER OF LATE SANDY HOOK PRINCIPAL: I know that you take the time to speak with me in your office in Washington the day after the vote. I wanted to thank you for that. You have mentioned that day the burden on owners of gun stores that the extended background checks would cause. I`m just wondering why the burden of my mother being gunned down in the hall of an elementary school isn`t as important as that. Why is that not something that can be supported?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: So you`re a United States senator from New Hampshire, and you`re back home in front of your previously friendly crowds at your town hall meetings, and you get a question about your gun vote from someone whose mother was killed in Sandy Hook Elementary School. That`s how it went for Kelly Ayotte today in New Hampshire, where her poll numbers have been sinking since she cast that vote against the popular will of her constituents.

The senator`s town hall meeting was in New Hampshire for her New Hampshire constituents. But the emotional center of gravity in the room was the woman who drove up from Connecticut to ask a question out her mother.

Joining me now for an exclusive interview, Erica Lafferty, the daughter of the last Sandy Hook Elementary School Principal Dawn Hochsprung. Erica, thank you very much for joining us tonight.

LAFFERTY: Thank you.

O`DONNELL: So, Erica, you decided to drive today from Connecticut to New Hampshire. What made you get in the car and go up there?

LAFFERTY: I really just wanted an answer to the question that I had asked her the day after the vote, after she voted no: why doesn`t my mother`s murder matter to her? And I got in my car at 6:00 this morning and drove to New Hampshire to ask her exactly that. And again, I got the run around, no clear answer. So I guess just in a search for an answer.

O`DONNELL: Well, you weren`t the only dissatisfied person in that room today. There were other people who had a lot of trouble with the way she voted.

LAFFERTY: There were a lot of people in the room that had very strong opinions about her -- her no vote.

O`DONNELL: Let`s listen to one of those people trying to question her about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can`t deny people the right to speak because they haven`t filled out a card.

SEN. KELLY AYOTTE (R), NEW HAMPSHIRE: I didn`t.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a question, but it is based upon something that was said here during the presentation.

(CROSS TALK)

AYOTTE: Let me say that I do every town hall meeting that way. I have a process. We will get to as many questions as we can.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`d like to regulate that, but you don`t want to regulate guns.

AYOTTE: Well --

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: Erica, her approval numbers, as they say in politics, are underwater since that vote. She has a 46 percent disapprove, a 44 percent approval in New Hampshire. I guess you could feel a lot of that disapproval in the room there today.

LAFFERTY: Absolutely. There was definitely quite a few people that were very clearly upset with the vote that she decided to go with. It definitely got a little intense there at a couple of points. And I don`t know. Being there, you really felt her stumble a little. I don`t know if she thought we were kind of going to disappear after she decided to vote against something so common sense. But I mean, I had promised since the very second that it came out that the legislation wasn`t approved that I wasn`t away. And clearly I wasn`t joking.

O`DONNELL: Erica Lafferty gets tonight`s LAST WORD. Thank you very much for joining us tonight, Erica. And I`m very, very sorry for your loss.

LAFFERTY: Thank you.

O`DONNELL: Thanks, Erica. Chris Hayes is up next.

END

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